Biological learning and control : how the brain builds representations, predicts events, and makes decisions / Reza Shadmehr and Sandro Mussa-Ivaldi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shadmehr, Reza.

Contributor:

Mussa-Ivaldi, Sandro.

Gail and Warren Lieberfarb Mental Health and Neuroscience Library Resources Fund.

Series:

Computational neuroscience

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Brain.

Neuropsychology.

Brain--Mathematical models.

Physical Description:

385 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, [2012]

Summary:

In Biological Learning and Control, Reza Shadmehr and Sandro Mussa-Ivaldi present a theoretical framework for understanding the regularity of the brain's perceptions, its reactions to sensory stimuli, and its control of movements. They offer an account of perception as the combination of prediction and observation: the brain builds internal models that describe what should happen and then combines this prediction with reports from the sensory system to form a belief.

Considering the brain's control of movements, and variations despite biomechanical similarities among old and young, healthy and unhealthy, and humans and other animals, Shadmehr and Mussa-Ivaldi review evidence suggesting that motor commands reflect an economic decision made by our brain weighing reward and effort. This evidence also suggests that the brain prefers to receive a reward sooner than later, devaluing or discounting reward with the passage of time; then as the value of the expected reward changes in the brain with the passing of time (because of development, disease, or evolution), the shape of our movements will also change.

The internal models formed by the brain provide the brain with an essential survival skill: the ability to predict based on past observations. The formal concepts presented by Shadmehr and Mussa-Ivaldi offer a way to describe how representations are formed, what structure they have, and how theoretical concepts can be tested. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Space in the Mammalian Brain 7

2 Building a Space Map 35

3 The Space Inside 67

4 Sensorimotor Integration and State Estimation 95

5 Bayesian Estimation and Inference 143

6 Learning to Make Accurate Predictions 177

7 Learning Faster 213

8 The Multiple Timescales of Memory 225

9 Building Generative Models: Structural Learning and Identification of the Learner 251

10 Costs and Rewards of Motor Commands 279

11 Cost of Time in Motor Control 307

12 Optimal Feedback Control 335.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Gail and Warren Lieberfarb Mental Health and Neuroscience Library Resources Fund.

ISBN:

9780262016964

0262016966

OCLC:

747385616